Every once in a while on this blog, we'll turn the focus away from Florida if something significant or notable is happening elsewhere in the country and you bet it is this weekend! Another major snowstorm is going to effect the northeast this weekend but, in what's been an unusual trend this winter, it's another snowstorm where the heaviest snow will fall across places like DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia rather than New York City -- and places like Hartford and Boston will end up seeing not much of any snow!
There's already been one historic snowstorm in the Mid Atlantic as just before Christmas places from DC to New York City were blanketed in a foot and a half to nearly three feet of snow. For the second time this winter, another 1-2'+ snowstorm will effect the very same areas. In the image I've included above, you're looking at the Eta model's forecast of total precipitation in inches between Thursday morning and Sunday. Notice that bright red stripe that extends from near Washington, DC to Cape May, NJ? That indicates the potential for over 3" of liquid precip!! This should fall as all snow.. and, assuming (and this is usually a safe assumption - the colder the air, the higher the ratio and vice versa) that 1" of rain translates to 10" of snow... the Eta model says nearly 2 1/2 feet of snow are possible in this area!
The reason for so much precip? A ton of Gulf moisture will be fed straight up the eastern seaboard into this storm (we'll feel the effects here with some heavy rain possible Friday night) and that will fall into some very cold air in the lowest 5,000 feet or so of the atmosphere across the DC to Philly areas. At the same time, warmer air will move in above this cold air (say around 10,000 feet) and that leads to rapidly rising air... which helps create heavy precipitation. It's already been a memorable winter in the Mid Atlantic and, with this next major storm, folks there are on their way to potentially an historic winter in terms of snowfall totals!
Brian
